Bush Ready to Present Palestinian Plan

Published 8:00 pm, Tuesday, April 29, 2003

AP Diplomatic Writer

The Palestinian approval of new leaders is triggering moves by the Bush administration to establish a Palestinian state by 2005 and roll back Israeli settlements.

Both goals are in a "road map" the United States developed with the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, which will be presented to Israel and the Palestinians on Wednesday, shortly after Mahmoud Abbas is sworn in as the Palestinian Authority's prime minister.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, due in the region later in the week for talks in Syria and Lebanon, plans to return about a week later for talks with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Powell already has said he will apply pressure on both sides to carry out the "road map" schedule through 2005. It would create two states _ one Jewish, one Palestinian _ living side by side in peace.

That means Israel would have to transfer West Bank territory and Gaza to the Palestinians. Whether the Bush administration intends to try to include part of Jerusalem in the deal has not been disclosed, probably because it is an explosive issue.

The Palestinian legislature's endorsement of Abbas as premier on Tuesday is prompting hands-on U.S. diplomacy to seek an overall settlement in the long-lasting Arab-Israeli feud, after delays that were criticized by European and Arab governments.

Powell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the administration would work hard to reopen negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. He ruled out meeting with Abbas on a trip to the region this week.

"He has some work to do, and I don't want to burden him on day one," Powell said.

Declaring he hoped Abbas would speak out immediately about terrorism, Powell said progress toward peace "is going to require acceptance of obligations, performance, by both sides."

Speaking to the Palestinian lawmakers before the vote, Abbas rejected terrorism and pledged to disarm militias and enforce the rule of law. A few hours later, a suicide bomber detonated a massive bomb at a beach restaurant in Tel Aviv, killing himself and at least three others.

A militia tied to Abbas' own Fatah movement claimed responsibility, along with the Islamic militant group Hamas. A spokesman for the Fatah-linked militia, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, told The Associated Press the attack was a message to the new prime minister that "nobody can disarm the resistance movements without a political solution."

The attack was bound to raise questions whether Abbas could stop terrorism arising from within his own movement, let alone from outside it.

State Department spokeswoman Nancy Beck said the attack wouldn't derail the peace effort. "This despicable attack was undertaken by those opposed to the restoration of dialogue and the peaceful pursuit of a comprehensive peace in the region," Beck said. "Attacks such as these will not deter us and the proponents of peace throughout the region from continuing down the path on which we have embarked."

Powell is to leave Washington for Spain on Thursday and go from there to Albania, Syria and Lebanon.

After a few days' respite back in Washington, Powell is expected to go to Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Germany and Russia.

A year ago in Madrid, the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia decided to create a plan to get Israel and the Palestinians back to the peace table after what now has been 2 1/2 years of fighting.

The State Department launched a campaign to sidetrack Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader accused by President Bush last June of being entwined in terror.

The emergence of Abbas, who has suggested he did not approve of using force against Israel, gave the Bush administration the vehicle it needed to return to active diplomacy.

Pushing for a Palestinian state after conquering Iraq is also seen as a way to mitigate anti-U.S. feelings among the Arabs.

In the first of his two trips, Powell is due to oversee the signing of a regional cooperation agreement in Tirana, the Albanian capital, by Albania, Croatia and Macedonia. The Adriatic Charter Partnership outlines cooperative reform efforts by each country in a quest for eventual membership in NATO.

In Syria, Powell is expected to hold tough talks with President Bashar Assad on U.S. allegations that Syria did not stop Iraqi officials from seeking refuge in Syria as President Saddam Hussein's government crumbled.

Syria is expected to again be named a sponsor of terror in the annual terrorism report to be issued Wednesday by the State Department.

Referring to the fall of Saddam and U.S. hopes for democracy in Iraq, Powell told the Senate committee, "I hope President Assad and his colleagues look at what is happening in the region and factor that in."

"They have a different neighbor," Powell said.

In Lebanon, Powell is expected to focus on activities by the militant group Hezbollah, which has fought a cross-border conflict with Israel.